Tigers Rainbow, Toby and Shere Kahn got a pleasant surprise this weekend – a new home. This is good news for the tigers, whose former home was the Tiger Truck Stop off Interstate 10 in Gross Tete, La.
As today’s front page story reports, the tigers are now in a sanctuary in Tennessee with other retired cats.
It couldn’t have happened sooner, but it should have.
The various tigers that have lived at the truck stop over the years have been victims of inadequate care and poor facilities. The cages are entirely concrete, with no pool – something many say is essential for a tiger habitat. The caretakers’ expertise is questionable, and several tigers have been in poor health from lack of care.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited the truck stop and its equivalent in Texas numerous times for not meeting the minimal federal standards for the care of animals in exhibition.
A PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – Web page lists many of the recent citations.
One citation was for mishandling the tigers – like in July 2001 when two 3-week-old cubs were being bottle raised and running loose in the truck stop office where they could be harmed by customers. Tiger Truck Stop received other citations for not keeping the cages clean and not providing proper food or sanitary water.
The list of violations goes on far too long. PETA and local activists have been pleading for years with truck stop owner Michael Sandlin to send the tigers somewhere they can get better care. But Sandlin refused, defending himself and the truck stop on its Web site.
“We’ve taken a lot of heat from a few animal rights activists that say our tigers ought to be out in the wild, but we really love these cats and take the very best care of them we can,” the Web site says.
But that’s the problem – the very best care that the Tiger Truck Stop can give is NOT the very best care the tigers can get. It’s not even the care they need. A true animal lover would have cared enough about the cats to know that they could get better care elsewhere.
One tiger, Tony, remains at the truck stop, and the USDA says Sandlin has some work to do in order to give Tony the care he needs. But the tigers should never have been there in the first place. A truck stop on the side of the roaring interstate that boasts a 24-hour Cajun restaurant, video poker and 24-hour tire service is no place for large exotic cats.
These creatures should not be reduced to novelty acts that draw in customers to spend more money while they “look at the pretty tigers.” Care and facilities for the tigers should not be an afterthought. One USDA inspector said “the management of this facility does not seem to place great store [in] or adequately reward caretakers.”
Even the truck stop’s Web site admits the tigers need a bigger cage with a pool. But the site complains that such an expansion “is not cheap” and asks those who are concerned about the tigers’ well-being to donate money for the renovation. The Tiger Truck Stop should have built the proper facilities before raising the tigers, instead of asking others to pay for what is essential for their care. And for that matter, people should not patronize a buisness that treats its animals so badly.
I’m not going to bring up that other tiger locked up around here, and I’m not going to say everyone should donate money to build Mike a new cage (although they should). Though a new cage is long overdue, I know that our beloved mascot gets much better care than the truck stop tigers. For now, let’s just be thankful that Rainbow, Toby and Shere Khan are getting the care they need in a place where they can be happy and healthy.